Rainbow Shoes
by Cj Serendipity
Summary: Luna has just finished her 6th year at Hogwarts, in the very pleasant company of Dean Thomas. As usual on the last night, many of her belongings have disappeared; including a pair of rainbow shoes that are particularly tricky to find. Dean and Luna scour the castle for the missing pair of shoes, and find something much more interesting in the process. Something about themselves.
1. The White Rabbit

**Hello! I've been working on this for a while now, and dropped it for about a year, when I suddenly had the urge to continue it today. I must say, I'm quite proud of it so far. Hope you like it too!**

* * *

"It's very nice of you to help me Dean," said Luna in that dreamy, far-off voice of hers. "But if you want to go ahead to the feast, I wouldn't mind."

"That's alright Luna. I want to help," replied Dean.

They had become very good friends since their time together at Shell Cottage. They were now back at Hogwarts, he finishing his 7th year and she her 6th. And once again she found herself searching for her lost, or so she had recently discovered, _stolen_ belongings, trying to gather up everything before the Hogwarts Express left in the morning. Despite everything they had all gone through with the Battle for Hogwarts and the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Na-_Voldemort_, she was still "different", and people were still cruel.

Oh well. Such is life.

She had made a list of things to find for both of them; four for him to find, and six for her.

_Perhaps with both of us searching, we'll still make the end of the feast_, she thought hopefully.

She handed one list to Dean and kept the other for herself. She gave Dean less to find than her, because her stolen belonging weren't his problem, and she didn't want him worrying over it more than he should. She valued his friendship greatly, and didn't want him to get annoyed with her. Though she doubted he would.

"Alright, how should we do this? You search the east side, I'll search the west?" Dean asked her while scanning the list.

"That sounds wonderful. We'll meet back here in an hour, and look for everything we didn't find on our own together. Okay?"

"Got it," Dean said with a smile. "See you in an hour."

They both turned to go their separate ways.

"Dean, wait! I forgot something." Luna turned around and walked back to where Dean had stopped.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out an odd purplish thing that looked like a banana.

"It's a Windywol. Daddy breeds them. It'll protect you from any stray nargles."

She tossed the Windywol into the air and it began to float over Dean's shoulder, spinning slowly.

"Thanks Luna," he said watching the Windywol in wonder.

"You're welcome. I'll be needing it back when you're done, though."

"Right. See you in a bit." He gave her a small smile and turned around.

"See you," she said quietly as she turned to walk away.

* * *

_Achoo!_

Dean sneezed as dust flew into the air, quickly pulling his head back out of the cabinet.

It had been a little over half an hour, and he had found two of the four items on his list: a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, and a t-shirt with Kansas on the front, a muggle band he'd heard of but never really gotten into.

He closed the cabinet doors, still trying to expel the dust from his lungs, and checked the rest of the room.

Finding nothing, he withdrew to search the next.

Left on his list were a stuffed white rabbit and a pair of rainbow-colored converse.

The next room he came to was empty, aside from a full length mirror residing in the far corner.

He strode over to check behind it, and stuck to the back of the mirror was the white rabbit.

_Clever really, the white rabbit behind the looking glass, _he thought as he unstuck it.

"Got you," he mumbled as it came free. "One more to go."

* * *

Luna jumped happily as she finally managed to pry her cork necklace from the inside of a dusty air shaft.

She had been wandering around the east wing of the castle searching for nearly an hour, and the necklace had been the last thing on her list.

Finding it had been easy enough. Getting it out, however, was quite another story altogether.

As she was passing by on her way to check another classroom, a glint from an air shaft behind a statue of Waldron the Unthinkable (who was really a professional salsa dancer, not the great philosopher everyone believed he was) had caught her eye.

She went to investigate and discovered that the glint was from one of the glass beads on her necklace.

Which was where she encountered a bit of a problem.

She could see it through the slats, but they were much too narrow to simply accio it out.

She'd had to travel through the corridors for almost ten minutes searching for another shaft that connected with the one containing her necklace. She'd finally found one where the slats were _just _wide enough for her to get it out, but not wide enough for her to accio it out without scratching it.

So she'd leviosa'd it as far as the vent, then had to use her wand to catch hold of and lift it out.

After many sparks and a few painful shocks from the end of her wand, the necklace caught and was at last freed from the old air shaft.

Excitedly, she hung the it around her neck, enjoying the familiar weight of it against her collarbones. She had missed wearing it.

Stuffing her wand into her back pocket and humming a meloncholy sounding tune from a film she'd liked, she skipped off to wait for Dean by the front doors.

* * *

Luna had been waiting for about fifteen minutes when Dean finally made it back.

"Hey Lu, sorry I'm late," he said as he approached the tall doors and the girl sitting against them.

"That's alright. I haven't been waiting too long," she smiled as he helped her to her feet.

"Did you find everything?" he asked.

"I did! And I bumbed into Mrs. Norris, and we had a nice chat. She's a very good listener, as cats go. How about you?"

"I found everything except the rainbow shoes," he responded, lifting the sack of her belongings for her to see.

"Oh, excellent. We might still make it back in time for pudding, if we hurry. Assuming Ernie's left any, that is. He eats more pudding than a white-footed mickaby," she said shaking her head in mock exasperation.

As she got more comfortable around Dean, she became more prone to making jokes with him. She could be quite funny once you got used to all the oddities that also filled her words.

"Shall we be off then, miss?" he asked, offering her his arm and raising his eyesbrows in a responding crack at humor.

"Indeed, good sir," she giggled, taking his arm. "Adventure awaits!"

"And pudding," he added with a smile.

"And pudding!"

Both laughing, they gadded down the corridor arm in arm.

"You'll never guess where I found your rabbit…"

* * *

**There you go! Hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please review! If you didn't...review too!**

**PS I know the sections are really short but I just picked it back up from like a year ago and started writing and rushed to finish a chapter and post it all in one day. After I'm finished I'll probably go back and fix it and make it longer and better and have more dialogue and stuff. This chapter was basically me just testing out my writing muscle that I haven't used in a while. Thanks for understanding and reading...I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, because I thoroughly enjoyed writing it.**

**And isn't it cute when he calls her Lu? I think it's cute. I can see him calling her that.**

**~ Cj Serendipity **


	2. I Promise

**The last chapter (dun dun DUUUUN!)...also...only the second chapter. I expected to have three chapters, but I was just writing and writing and couldn't figure out a way to make it into three without it not being as good. I really hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

"So why don't you report your missing things to a teacher, or the headmaster? I'm sure they'd put an end to it," Dean questioned, looking behind a statue, finding nothing. Another whole hour they'd been searching, and still nothing. The feast was long over, all hopes of pudding past. He was frustrated.

"It's become a bit of a fun tradition, searching the castle on the last night. And I wouldn't want to trouble anyone," she answered, peering into another air shaft.

"But you don't mind troubling me? That's nice of you," he snapped at her, annoyed.

"You don't have to get an attitude with me, Dean. You volunteered, remember?" she reminded with a slightly hurt frown.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Luna," he touched her shoulder apologetically. "I'm just tired. And hungry. You think we could take a break and stop by the kitchens for a little while?" he halfway begged.

The great clock struck twelve, indicating that they had been searching for almost three hours.

"Oh, neither of us has had supper yet, has we? No wonder we're a bit grumpy. I hadn't realized how long we've been."

"And it's a right stroke of luck we haven't run into Filch yet, being so late. We'll have to be a bit more careful now," he warned with a yawn.

She lowered her voice, as though now that they acknowledged him he might suddenly appear around the corner. Which, knowing Filch, was a very real possibility.

"Which way to the kitchens from here Dean?" she leaned close and whispered, her eyes comically wide as she realized the danger of being caught.

"Down that way. It should take us back to the front doors, and it'll be easy to find our way from there," he leaned in to whispered back.

Lowering his eyes to hers, he was briefly shocked by the closeness. He stilled for a moment, looking into her eyes. She was oblivious to the moment of course, but his breath wasn't coming out quite right, and he wondered how he hadn't noticed how beautiful she looked tonight.

"Are you coming Dean?" she whispered, eyebrows raised.

"Um, y-yeah," he stammered, straightening back up. What had just happened? "Right. Um. This way then," he led, while Luna wondered why he was suddenly acting so weirdly.

_Must be nargles,_ she thought, and discreetly slipped the windywol back over his shoulder as she followed behind him.

"It's just around this corner – ah!" he jumped back in surprise at the purple creature floating above his shoulder. "Luna, did you…?" he questioned, pointing at the windywol as he tried to slow his heart rate.

"Yes," she replied serenely. "I noticed you we acting a bit funny earlier, and thought it might help."

"Uh, thanks. Yeah, I think there are a lot of nargles around here tonight. Better hurry then, to the kitchens," he said, awkwardly continuing down the hall to the fruit painting.

Merlin, she'd noticed. Not that he'd done a very good job at hiding it. Now he'd embarrassed himself again, nearly having a heart attack at the sight of the wally-wind thing. It was a good thing they were leaving tomorrow, because he wasn't sure he'd want to show his face again after tonight.

_Tomorrow, _he thought with a pang in his heart. They were leaving _tomorrow,_ and he wouldn't get to see Luna again for the whole summer. The thought weighed his spirits down more than he'd expected. They had grown very close over the year, and he wasn't ready to say goodbye to her. _Maybe I'll visit,_ he thought hopefully. _Maybe she'll visit me._

With a heavy heart, he reached out a tickled the pear in the painting. It swung open to reveal a narrow passage, through which he could smell tomorrow's breakfast already cooking.

"After you," he gestured, letting her go first.

A moment later he entered in after her, and exited to find the house elves all clustered around her offering treats. She beamed and patted each on the head as they came past, which they seemed to enjoy enormously. Soon they had all lined up to be patted on the head, each offering a treat as they returned to the back of the line.

Before long, her arms were filled with so many candies and pastries that she couldn't hold anymore, and she burst into a fit of laughter as they began eagerly stuffing them into her pockets.

"All right, all right!" she protested fighting back giggles. "Thank you all so much, I think I've got plenty, really. Thank you!" they bowed back to her, glad to be of service to such a sweet young lady. One young elf came forward timidly with a small peppermint in hand, wanting to be patted one more time.

"Oh, all right," she acquiesced with a smile, depositing her armfuls of sweets onto the counter. She took the peppermint and patted him again, after which he squealed happily and ran off back to his work.

She smiled at Dean blissfully, and he thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight than the one he just witnessed. Her joy, her way of bringing joy to others. It was breathtaking. And heartbreaking that others didn't see what he did. He hoped that she'd never let them change her, his Luna.

_His Luna, _he thought, startled by his own words. _Maybe she's right about those nargles after all._

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and returned her smile.

She jumped to take a seat on the counter, and motion for him to do the same.

"Care for a pie?" she asked, handing him one before he could answer.

"Fanks," he said through a mouthful of flaky cherry pie. "This is delicious," he exclaimed enthusiastically, taking another bite. He had been so hungry.

"Thank you sir!" about a dozen little voices piped up from the rush of elves running around the kitchen.

"No problem," he grinned, picking up another pie.

Luna and Dean sat quietly for a while, eating through the colossal pile of sweets.

They paused to listen as the clock chimed one o'clock. Six more hours until the train left for London.

"So, the last night's almost over. We'll be going home soon," Dean observed morosely. Suddenly the lollies and cakes didn't seem so appetizing, and he cast his eyes downward.

"It's been a good year. We don't need to be too sad about it; there's always next year," she comforted, placing her hand on his.

"For you maybe, not for me. This is my last year," he cried looking up at her. "It's strange, knowing tomorrow is going to be my last time boarding the Hogwarts Express, my last day wearing my school robes. I'll never sleep in my dormitory again; never have another meal in the great hall. It doesn't feel real yet, that I won't be coming back next autumn. I've spent half my life here. It's home."

He looked down at her hand on top of his, and turned his over so that their fingers entwined together.

"I'm going to miss you Lu," he said softly, squeezing her hand.

"I'll miss you too Dean. You'll write me, won't you?"

"Every week," he replied with a small smile. "And maybe…I could visit sometime this summer? If that's okay with you."

"Of course you can," she cheered. "I'd love it if you came and stayed with us for a while. We could use the company. Daddy would like to see you again too. He hasn't said, but he admires you very much. How you took care of me when…when we were away. I think a visit would be welcome. And maybe I could come visit you."

"Yeah," he smiled, his heart not so heavy as before. "I'd love for you to meet my parents. I've written them about you, and they're real excited. Said you're the first friend I've had worth writing about 'sides Seamus."

She smiled and looked down at their hands.

He felt something wet drop onto the back of his hand, and realized with a start that she was crying.

"Luna, what's the matter?" he asked, bewildered.

"Promise me you won't forget me, Dean. Promise me. You're the best friend I've ever had, and I couldn't bear it if I lost you. I know what other people say about me, what they think of me. They play jokes on me, pretend to be my friend, and then don't speak to me. They make fun of me for thinking they really liked me. You have to promise me Dean Thomas that you won't say you'll write me every week unless you absolutely will! Promise me that you'll come to visit, and that we'll stay friends. You can't just tell me those things and then not do them. I can't do it again Dean, I can't. I can't lose another friend. I can't have anyone else leave me. I can't," she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Oh, Lu," he sighed, hugging her tightly. "Luna, look at me."

She raised her eyes to his, tears pouring down her face.

"I promise. I promise with all of my heart, that I will write you every week, every day if you want me to. I promise you that I'll come visit, and you and I will go fishing in the stream by your house, and you can show me your paintings, and we'll go into town to see one of those films that you love so much."

He took her face in both of his hands.

"I promise you that I will never, ever forget you, Luna Lovegood. I promise you that we'll be friends for the rest of our lives, even when we're deaf and blind and walk with a cane. I promise you Luna, that you will never lose me, because I could never bear to lose you. I promise."

He wiped away her tears, and gazed into her eyes.

"I promise."

Without another word spoken, they both did what they knew to be right in that moment.

Slowly, they leaned forward, and a first kiss so gentle and beautiful was shared, sealing the promise as tears mixed with tears.

They drew back and gazed at one another, as though each seeing the other for the first time. Here in this noisy kitchen, covered in sugar and pie crust, the silent promise was made, not just of an eternal friendship, but of love.

And Luna knew that when he promised he would never forget her, he meant it.

Neither of them knew how long they sat there, just resting in the presence of each other. Maybe it was hours. Maybe the Hogwarts Express had already left, and they would be free to sit here together forever.

Then the clock chimed two o'clock, and they knew they had to go. Time had returned, and the mission they had set out with had not been completed.

With another soft kiss, Dean took both of Luna's hands in his and helped her off the counter. He marveled at this new feeling. It was only a shadow of what he'd been feeling the rest of the night. He felt whole.

Hands intertwined, they thanked the elves for their kindness. With a few more sweets stuffed in their pockets, they left the kitchens.

* * *

The clock chimed again, another hour passed.

"Where should we look next?" Dean asked as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"I think…have we checked the transfiguration room yet?" she responded, equally as drowsy.

"Yeah, twice. How about your common room?"

"I looked there first. Are there any classrooms you didn't check?"

"No, I got all the classrooms. Can't say about all the other rooms though, this castle has more secret rooms than Professor Dumbledore has middle names."

Too tired to laugh she just smiled. "We haven't checked the towers yet, have we?"

"No, we haven't. You sure you want to? That's a lot of stairs," he said uncertainly.

"We might as well. If they're not there, we'll give up the search and go to bed. Okay?"

"Okay."

* * *

Slowly, they began their trek up the many stairs, in a final attempt to find the elusive shoes.

The first tower yielded nothing, nor did the first, and by the third they were beginning to fall asleep standing up.

They stood at the bottom of the last set of stairs, leading up to the astronomy tower.

Both exhausted and leaning on each other for support, they climbed the steps slowly, desperate to reach the top.

After a struggle that made wrestling a dragon seem like child's play, they finished off the final steps, and came to a stop.

They stared around the room for a moment before stepping inside.

"You search that side, I'll search this one?" Dean proposed.

"Sure," Luna replied sleepily, and for the next ten minutes they looked under chairs and in cabinets, and still the shoes were nowhere to be found.

"It's useless Luna," Dean sighed as he rubbed his eyes. "We're never gonna find your shoes. I'm sorry."

"It's all right. I don't think we could have tried any harder if we tried."

She frowned and shook her head. "I mean... If we tried harder I don't think we could…I think we tried harder than we…I think it would be best to just forget about it and try to get some sleep," she muttered and rubbed her temples.

"I think you're right. Let's go," he said taking her hand.

They stood at the top of the stairs and stared down. Two hundred and thirty-two steps.

"I don't think I could make it back down if I tried. I'd fall asleep and kill myself," Dean confessed.

"And you'd take me down with you," she replied with a tired smile.

"Maybe we should just stay up here tonight. I honestly don't think we can make it down those stairs without hurting ourselves. It'd be too dangerous."

"You're right. It wouldn't hurt to stay up here for just one night," she said staring at the suddenly very comfortable-looking floor.

She sank to the knees and yawned.

"Let's go to sleep Dean," she said as she lay down.

He lay down beside her and kissed her cheek.

"Luna?"

"Yeah, Dean?" she asked, already almost asleep.

He paused a moment before saying softly, "I love you."

She was quiet for a moment, and he wasn't sure that she'd heard him.

He was about to say it again when she spoke.

"Dean Thomas…I love you too. More than you know."

He smiled and closed his eyes, happier than he'd ever been.

She looked over at him, already asleep, and touched his face gently.

Before closing her eyes as well, Luna glanced upwards. Dangling from the rafters above them, were two pairs of brightly colored shoelaces.

* * *

**Tada! I finished it! Did you like it? I hope you did. I cried like a freaking baby while writing the leading up to the kiss. I'm really proud of this story, even though it's not as good as it could be and in a little while I'll probably come back through and revise it, but I really like this first version of it. Please don't forget to review, tell me if you loved it, hated it, thought there was something I could have done better. Any feedback you can give me is more than welcome. xoxo**

**~Cj**


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